Wednesday, July 4 – Aberdovey to Aberystwyth

This morning we had a fine start. To begin, our bill was excessive and on account of this we had a nice quiet chat with the boarding house keeper before we left. Crossing the railway viaduct, we started to climb upon reaching Fairbourne. The road along the coast was very hard and uninteresting except for the sea. Soon we came to the pleasant fishing village of Llwyngwril. Its church has many attractions and is very ancient but we did not stop as I would have wished. The road still climbed, then suddenly left the sea and dived inland through Llangryn.

It became painfully narrow and winding but as we neared the hills, gave us fine scenery to compensate. At Bryncrug we turned towards the sea again to Tywyn, a rather snug little resort. Defying temptation we pushed on, until, as the road swept round we ran into Aberdovey, a quiet town with a long river front. We were quite taken up with the place. A homely commercial hotel made us a decent lunch at 1pm. 2pm saw us pushing towards the quay for the ferry. A motor launch (not the ferry) shipped us. We had a hard task in getting the bikes on board, the jetty being much higher than the boat. Anyway we crossed the Dyfi (River Dovey) without mishap, and there being no landing stage at the other side, we had to jump on to the soft sand. Then followed a tough struggle, crossing what seemed like miles of soft sand which gave up to six inches for each footstep. It was not worth it. There was no compensating scenery although it was quite a novelty. And when we did get on the sand-swept road it proved the dullest four miles of the week. The golf links are supposed to be very good, but are bleak and swampy.

Borth is much relieved by the rocky coast beyond, and the road past the resort becomes even pretty. Past Bow Street however, the wonderful views are almost incomparable. As expected there is a long 470ft ascent between here and Aberystwyth, and from this vantage point the Rheidol Valley stretches out before you. The mountains here are gentle, tilled slopes with rounded tops, and although I would far sooner have the sharp rocky peaks further north, they are quite a change. And then we swooped down into Aberystwyth.

Leaving our third man with his parents (also on holiday) two of us rode on to Llanbadarn to find digs for the night. We had a terrific hunt for ‘Wayfarer’s’ cottage, and when we found it, it was full up but we got in further down the road. Tea was taken in Aberystwyth, afterwards climbing Constitution Hill, ‘doing’ the prom and town, the castle grounds and a sail on the briny, returning to Waunfawr at 10pm for a rattling good supper.